Everyone is reacting differently to the pandemic of 2020. I know people who think this whole thing is an overblown media creation, while others are hunkering down in the fetal position in the corner. Most everyone else is somewhere in the middle, alternating between despair and optimism, frustration and acceptance, irritability and kindness.
Then...there’s my friend, Denise Roy.
Denise is my first and only Tempest groupie. Out of nowhere one day several years ago I received a letter in the mail from this crazy lady in North Carolina explaining how she had found my blog and become a huge fan, thanking me for brightening her day and making her laugh. We soon became fast friends and eventually, Denise volunteered to edit the book I wrote about my parents called Finishing Well. Turns out, Denise was a stickler for proper punctuation and grammar and what not. Anyway, she often reads my blogs and sends me a text pointing out all of my dangling modifiers.
Ok. So Denise has a rather unique outlook on life. She is hysterically funny in an often unintentional way. Relentlessly positive and self aware, she isn’t afraid to make fun of people...especially herself. She’s that person at the office who takes it upon herself to lighten the mood. Yes...she’s the one at the North Carolina Department of Revenue—a decidedly un-funny place—who is in charge of the Elf on the Shelf plague during Christmas.
The other day I asked her how work was going with all this Coronavirus mess. She shared that everyone was working from home, that all day she went from one video conference to another from the comfort of her home. They were deadly dull affairs and the whole video-call thing was starting to get on her nerves. Then, in an extraneous moment she made the crack that maybe she would “liven things up” at some point. Did she ever!!
For the rest of the week she sent me pictures of herself in various hilarious get-ups that she prepared for maximum shock value for the entertainment of her coworkers. She has given me permission to share them with her fellow Tempest readers:
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Coronavirus will never destroy us. People like Denise Roy remind us that the indomitable human spirit will prevail. No matter how long this drags on, no matter how claustrophobic we become, even on days when the news is dark...there will always be plenty of Denise Roy’s out there reminding all of us to take a deep breath, take each day as it comes and find something to smile about.
Denise, you are the best!
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